Critical observations of print/broadcast/Web media plus public relations and advertising

June 22, 2012

USS Nimitz spooking marijuana boats zips by editors

Most news media this week missed an interesting high seas story involving the 101,600-ton USS Nimitz, one of the largest warships in the world, scattering three 25-foot boats loaded with 100-pound bags of marijuana last Saturday off the Southern California coast, notes Grumpy Editor.

The Associated Press summed up the unusual encounters at sea --- which involved three U.S. ships and one Mexican vessel --- in a four-sentence mid-week story that lacked many details.

Among media outlets that included the saga in news reports were ABC News, CBS News, New York Daily News, and Stars and Stripes.

The supercarrier Nimitz, 1,092 feet long, was conducting flight qualification tests when sailors spotted two small boats about four miles away.

When a Seahawk helicopter went in for a closer look, two marijuana-loaded boats sped toward the coast and began dumping bags which were later found to contain 100-pound bales of marijuana.

Another small “marijuana” boat, spotted three hours later, also dumped similar cargo after being spotted by air.

Also getting into the act was the nearby USS Princeton. The cruiser sent sailors in inflatable boats to retrieve several dozen of the floating, dumped bales.

A Mexican navy ship arrived later and helped secure the remainder of the 186 bales of marijuana recovered that day.

Total retrieved: 18,600 pounds of marijuana.

The marijuana was subsequently transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Edisto (which fished 156 bales of marijuana tossed by a speedboat off the Baja California coast in December, 2008).